In an exclusive interview, Katz discusses:

Katz is a prominent figure in the network security discipline. Since 1985, he has served as the senior security executive for Citibank/Citigroup, JP Morgan, and most recently Merrill Lynch - and has been a force in raising the visibility and shaping the direction of the security industry at industry and government levels.

Deeply respected within both the financial services and security industries, Katz has testified to Congress on information security issues and was appointed as the Financial Services Sector Coordinator for Critical Infrastructure Protection by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Other credentials include: Founder and Chairman of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center; Chairman of the American Bankers Association Information Systems Security Committee; Vice Chair, Financial Services Roundtable-BITS Security and Risk Assessment Committee; member of the New York Clearinghouse Banks Data Security Officers Committee; and member of the Securities Industry Association Information Security Committee.

To gain further insight into spending trends, we spoke with Christine Barry, research director with Aite Group, on:

Christine Barry serves as a Research Director at Aite Group LLC, focusing on the strategies and technology implementations of global banks of all sizes. Her recent research has addressed remote deposit capture, best-practices for credit unions, capturing the valuable small-business customer, global cash management trends, and core banking system replacement. She is an acknowledged banking industry expert with more than a decade of experience in financial services products and technologies. She has worked with a broad range of U.S. and international clients analyzing industry trends and identifying market opportunities, product gaps and potential partners to help them achieve their strategic IT goals.

Yet, in the wake of security breaches and questionable business practices at some financial institutions, federal regulators are cracking down on auditors. In an exclusive interview, Holly Kidder, a director of the Institute if Internal Auditors, discusses:

Kidder has almost 15 years of experience within the field of internal auditing as well as practical knowledge in the financial services industry, having worked in various roles from teller to Vice President.

She is currently a Technical Director within Standards and Guidance at The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Global Headquarters. The IIA, established in 1941, is an international professional association of more than 160,000 members in 165 countries with headquarters in Altamonte Springs, Florida, United States. Throughout the world, The IIA is recognized as the internal audit profession's leader in certification, education, research, and technological guidance.

Since January, critics of the Heartland Payment Systems data breach have called out for tougher encryption standards for financial institutions and their third-party service providers. Applications for encryption are all around us from encrypting email traffic to board communications, remote access and mobile & Internet banking.

In an exclusive interview, Matthew Speare of M&T Bank discusses his webinar on the topic, touching upon:

Speare oversees security for M & T Bank Corporation, the nation's 17th largest bank holding company, based in Buffalo, New York. He is responsible for developing and sustaining an information risk program that effectively protects the personal information of millions of M & T Bank customers. His responsibilities include information security management, IT compliance and risk management, corporate emergency and incident response, and business continuity management.

Matt is also a Major in the Army National Guard, serving as the 42nd Infantry Division Aviation Operations Officer, and is a AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter pilot.

Do you want to explain to your customers how you lost control of their personal financial information?

In an exclusive interview, Matthew Speare of M&T Bank discusses:

Speare oversees security for M & T Bank Corporation, the nation's 17th largest bank holding company, based in Buffalo, New York. He is responsible for developing and sustaining an information risk program that effectively protects the personal information of millions of M & T Bank customers. His responsibilities include information security management, IT compliance and risk management, corporate emergency and incident response, and business continuity management.

Matt is also a Major in the Army National Guard, serving as the 42nd Infantry Division Aviation Operations Officer, and is a AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter pilot.

This is the belief of Gerald Masson, Director of Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, and in an exclusive interview he discusses:

Masson received his PhD from Northwestern University in 1971. He has developed and taught numerous graduate and undergraduate courses addressing various aspects of the field of computer networking and systems architecture. He has published over 150 technical papers, co-authored two books and is an inventor on six patents. His research addresses a range of issues dealing with the foundations and implementations of distributed systems regarding issues such as survivability, real-time performance monitoring techniques, and security mechanisms used for network access. His research has been widely cited as well as implemented and utilized for critical infrastructure government and commercial applications.

But collectively, in active collaboration, they could do much more to prevent, detect and investigate these crimes, says AML expert Kevin Sullivan.

In an exclusive interview in advance of his latest AML webinars, Sullivan discusses:

Sullivan is a former Investigator with the NY State Police and was the state investigations coordinator assigned to the NY HIFCA El Dorado Task Force in Manhattan. He has more than 20 years of police experience. Sullivan possesses a Masters in Economic Crime Management and is both a certified anti-money laundering specialist and certified anti-money laundering professional. He is also the director of AMLtrainer.com.

These are among the findings of Verizon's new 2009 Data Breach Investigations Report. In an exclusive interview, Dr. Peter Tippett, VP of Technology and Innovation at Verizon Business, discusses:

Tippett is the chief scientist of the security product testing and certification organization, ICSA Labs, an independent division of Verizon Business. An information security pioneer, Tippett has led the computer security industry for more than 20 years, initially as a vendor of security products, and over the past 16 years, as a key strategist. He is widely credited with creating the first commercial anti-virus product that later became Norton AntiVirus.

Regina Phelps is an internationally recognized expert in the field of emergency management and continuity planning. With over 26 years of experience, she has provided consultation and educational speaking services to clients in four continents. She is founder of Emergency Management & Safety Solutions, a consulting company specializing in emergency management, continuity planning and safety.

Resources

Cybersecurity. Cloud Computing. Encryption. Public/Private Partnership. Taking the Cost and Complexity out of Compliance. These were among the resonant themes of the conference's programming, and they were discussed extensively on the Expo floor.

And Information Security Media Group was on site to record the most significant moments. From the highly-anticipated keynote on cybersecurity by Melissa Hathaway to individual conference sessions on data breaches and security risks, the ISMG team produced a wealth of articles, blogs and interviews tailored to the interests of information security leaders.

For the first time ever, ISMG also participated in the event, previewing the results of our annual Banking Information Security Today survey.

If you, too, were at the event, be sure to send us your own observations. What stood out to you about RSA Conference 2009?